Astorga – Day 17
March 2nd, 2008 Posted in Spain, To Be A Pilgrim
We really need a day off, especially after last night. We do manage to visit the grand (for the size of Astorga) Cathedral, whose interior is strangely almost split in two by a giant organ. Apart from that, we spend a couple of hours over a huge lunch, before a long siesta. It’s amazing how much time we can spend resting!
Astorga is noticeably full of graffiti but it’s political rather than the nonsense and gossip of home. It’s somehow comforting that teenagers here still care about politics, perhaps because democracy is still new, or because of their parents’ memories of the oppression under Franco. I knew that there were Catalan and Basque nationalist movements, but although I knew Galicia had its own language I’d been surprised to see calls for nationhood daubed on walls. Here in Astorga, part of the region of Leon and Castilla, some graffiti calls for Leon to be split from the province of Castilla – can Spain really be called one nation? Back at the plaza in the evening, there’s a wonderful atmosphere once again it’s full people of all ages, with children rushing around on tricycles and having water fights whilst their grandparents sip cognac. What are united here are the different generations, in a way they never feel at home.
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